Pretty hideous IMO. I did grow HC OK with no CO2 though. At some point I need to buy some shrimp from you as well, want another low tech nano once I redo my kitchen. Who knows when that will happen, hopefully sooner than later though.

Pretty hideous IMO. I did grow HC OK with no CO2 though. At some point I need to buy some shrimp from you as well, want another low tech nano once I redo my kitchen. Who knows when that will happen, hopefully sooner than later though.

That's wack, you were the first member on the board to get some rare stuff and are semi-local to me. I totally understand, have had to refocus a lot lately. Totally respectable, and more so, I totally understand.

I am not exactly an expert on high tech tanks, but that glosso seems to definitely be saying it needs more light. If your bulbs are 1.5 years old and you typically leave them on 10 or 11 hours per day, I am going to guess you need new bulbs. I could be wrong, but it is the only explanation that makes sense and it is what I would try next if I were in your shoes. Lowering the fixture would have a similar effect temporarily I suppose....

I am not exactly an expert on high tech tanks, but that glosso seems to definitely be saying it needs more light. If your bulbs are 1.5 years old and you typically leave them on 10 or 11 hours per day, I am going to guess you need new bulbs. I could be wrong, but it is the only explanation that makes sense and it is what I would try next if I were in your shoes. Lowering the fixture would have a similar effect temporarily I suppose....

I decided to buy 2 new bulbs and replaced a 3rd bulb since I took a rosette bulb out in the first few days so I had a replacement on hand. With 2 bulbs, it is a fair amount brighter to the eye. With all 4 bulbs, pretty significant to the eye. Furthermore, the Aquaticlife bulbs looked a fair amount dimmer than the replacements of the similar spectrum. The one 10k bulb I replaced (Hamilton Technology) seemed to look the same as the new one of the same brand. My LFS just happens to carry that brand and I have had bad luck with Coralife and Aqueon so I choose this brand only because it's what's available.

I know that is not the best way to gauge but it does make me think that the Aquaticlife bulbs may have not been up to par (pun intended I guess) and just don't last as long. With a quick search, it seems that others may feel the same way, the fixture is decent but the bulbs are not. Who knows.

Anyway, I just did for housekeeping reasons and it seems to be an improvement. Time will tell.

Finally back from LA. I have now added 5 Rummynose. These can actually be somewhat challenging to buy locally so even after a long time in the hobby, this is the first time I have had them. Plan to only stock these guys for fish, not sure if I will add shrimp or not (probably will). They haven't colored up yet but I actually find them to be pretty colorful which is a good surprise for me. I was going to do Cardinals but decided on these last minute.

I have been dosing Excel everyday I have been home and a lot of algae is clearing up. I am still getting algae on the glass and the rocks. One is a lime green, one is a much darker green but not BGA. Not really sure what the second one is. Both are slimy but easy to get rid of. I do have a tiny bit of lingering BGA which doesn't seem to be getting better or worse.

The Glosso is still growing upwards but isn't as leggy as it used to be. I am only running 2 bulbs with a 2 hour noon burst. The new bulbs seem to be making a difference because I had my light lower in height and had a longer noon burst. I will add light by lowering it or extending my noon burst once I have propagated the Glosso a bit more.

Need to dial in my CO2 again as I have yet to have fish in the tank. Hopefully algae will not gain ground in the process.

Anyway, nothing to exciting but chugging along. Still don't have a real camera so phone pic only (again).

Quick update....I am starting to find the sweet spot between light and algae. It is hard to see in the pictures but the glosso that has been trimmed is starting to carpet. Everything I cut and replanted is growing upwards. The fact it is finally starting to carpet is great because I can now understand a bit better with how much light I am really going to need.

That said, I will likely extend the noon burst and/or drop down the fixture. I still think it could use a bit more light. Reason being is growth is still slower than it should be and I have some R. Butterfly in back that is not coloring up. I feel I am only about 1/4 planted right now compared to a dense, lush carpet I think more light doable. I will likely wait until after I trim, propagate, and wait for everything to recover.

This update is just for me to keep tabs on things. Every time I trim my glosso, I realize how great the HC is carpeting and how I just want to do HC. Being noncommittal, I am testing a very small area to see if I am correct. I took all glosso out in that area and planted HC in it's place. I probably used 1/4 of a pot so we will see in a week or two where that gets me.

I don't know if this is an update or a progress report. The HC in the middle is doing very well, spreading way faster than the glosso ever did. I know there is not such a thing but I feel like I had faulty glosso. Well, it does fine in my nano, not sure what the deal is in this tank.

The HC in the middle is doing very well. The first picture is a progression of the last 9 days.

On the sides, I didn't start with as much but it is also not taking off as quickly. I think it's a combination of me having a 24 in fixture and floating plants, especially on the left side, that was totally shaded. I can raise the light for better spread and extend my noon burst for more intensity during the day, will wait and see.

Pics are not so good, I keep planning on buying a digital camera but I am having a wedding in less than a month, budget is ultra tight right now.

Nice stones. Was quite intrigued that you initially had high light algae issues without the consequent plant growth effects. Even odder that HC is progressing well but the glosso grows upwards. Maybe it was a odd batch of glosso or something. I wonder whether its a stability issue as well, or method of planting.

Nice stones. Was quite intrigued that you initially had high light algae issues without the consequent plant growth effects. Even odder that HC is progressing well but the glosso grows upwards. Maybe it was a odd batch of glosso or something. I wonder whether its a stability issue as well, or method of planting.

HC seems to be spreading well though, so things are looking up~

It's odd because the glosso does fine in my other tank. I think my initial algae was caused by lack of plant mass but I am still not sure about growth issues. The only thing I can think of was my UV was on for awhile. However, I have never had growth issues doing that, I usually keep my UV sterilizer on for a few weeks on a new tank. Have no idea but the HC seems to be doing a lot better.

Blurry update. Finally did a trim on the tank. The DHG is really dense now so I trimmed that down and pulled out quite a bit. Trimmed a bit of HC at the same time.

It doesn't look like much but the middle is filling out well. The left side was planted about 2 weeks later than the middle so it's only starting to catch up. The right side was planted about 3 weeks later so it's pretty far behind. I am guessing it will look pretty decent in about 2-3 weeks and carpet fully in about 1.5 months.

I am getting BGA and algae on the glass. Not sure why I tend to get it on this tank, nuking the BGA and then I will try to figure this out. I am trying to buy a real camera but money is a bit tight, getting married in 2.5 weeks so money is going elsewhere.

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